Sloosh patted Deyv's shoulder. "Very good. You are learning."
"What nonsense," Hoozisst said. "Why would anyone stay in The House while the Earth was a good place to live in? Surelv, that man, if he is a man and not just a statue, would leave The House to enjoy life. What sense is there in sitting frozen on that chair and only rousing, and that not often, to look out the window?"
"We don't know that he does stay in The House," The Shemibob said. "Of course, that would imply a longevity that makes even mine look as short as a mayfly's existence."
The Yawtl snickered.
"Besides, there is no guarantee that The House would be drawn to a planet," Sloosh said. "It might float through space until it falls with all other matter toward a common point."
"Perhaps," The Shemibob said, "it makes no difference to the tenant."
"The point is," Hoozisst said, "is there anything there that will tell us what the flying figures mean?"
The Shemibob sighed and said, "No."
"Then we've wasted our time and put ourselves in danger for nothing."
"You're too practical, too unimaginative," Sloosh said. "This universe wasn't created for the likes of you."
The Yawtl lifted one lip to show some sharp teeth, but he said nothing.
Deyv looked from the screen into the sombre depths below the window. Was the statue really a human being who woke up now and then after an unimaginably long nap? Who then walked through a hall and into a room that held a window and looked through it to see how the world had changed? And then he walked back to the throne and became a statue again?
What woke him up and what put him to sleep again, that is, turned him back into a stuff that nothing could destroy?
Deyv shook his head, and he shivered.
Sloosh said, "I wonder why the hand on the thrigz is yellow and the figures are blue?"
The Shemibob gave her flapping laugh. "What is the color of time?"
Sloosh buzzed laughter. "I don't know. What is the angle of a thought?"
"Or the temperature of love?"
"Or the rate of acceleration of instinct?"
''Is a dead ray of light gray or blue?"
They burst out laughing again. This was cut off by a cry from the Yawtl. "His finger moved!"
Startled, all looked at the screen.
After a while, Deyv said, "I think I see it move, too." He wanted desperately to get down off the roof and into the vessel.
The Shemibob said, "No, it didn't. You imagined it. So did Hoozisst."
"It's like watching a corpse and thinking you see its chest rise and fall," Vana said. She didn't sound too certain, however.
They kept on looking at the finger with the gold band. There wasn't a sound. It seemed as if the whole world had died.
Finally, The Shemibob said, "We have less time than I thought. We should go now."
Deyv did not recall ever having heard words that made him as happy.
41
SEVENTY times The Dark Beast had crossed the glaring skies.
Thrush was walking now and babbling, on the edge of mastering many words and forming short sentences.
Vana had just announced that she was again pregnant. Neither she nor Deyv had given in on the dispute about which tribe they would live with.
Phemropit said that it would soon need more "food." They must look for another source of the ore from which it got its energy. The Shemibob had promised that they would keep an eye out for it. But she confided to the rest that there was not much chance they would find the ore.
This made Deyv sad. Though he found it impossible to love the creature, he did have a certain fondness for it. Moreover, he and the others depended heavily upon it for transportation, meat, and protection.
When it expired, they would have a much less comfortable and safe life.
Shortly after this, the Yawtl said that they were getting close to his native village.
"What do you propose to do?" The Shemibob asked. "Take your egg and the Emerald to your home and be a shaman there? Or go on with us to look for the gateway? It would be best if you did both. You might be able to talk your people into coming with us. Then, if we get through the gateway, you and your people will have a new world to settle down in. You might also find new and valuable things to steal."
"If!" Hoozisst said. "I am not one to put much faith in if's. Besides, this gateway probably leads only to some other on this planet. I'd find myself in a worse situation and might never get home."
"Then you will die and your tribe with you."
Deyv thought that if the Yawtl's village was nearby, then so was the place where Feersh had moored her tharakorm. And near that was the cave in which she'd hidden his and Vana's eggs. He asked Hoozisst if he would lead them to it
"What can you give me for this service?" Hoozisst asked.
"Nothing," Deyv said angrily. He hesitated, then said, "Nothing except not cutting your throat. After all,
Yawtl, you owe me. If it wasn't for you, I'd not be in this mess."
"Thank him, then," Sloosh said. "If it wasn't for him, you'd not have had all these educational experiences. You'd be a simple savage squatting in the mud, incapable even of dreaming about the wonderful things you've seen. Not to mention having known me."
"I owe you," Hoozisst said, his eyes narrowed. "But it's not what you think."
Later, Deyv told Vana of his conversation.
"But we can find the cave by ourselves."
"Do you really think if s necessary? We have these." She lifted up her soul egg.
"I'm not sure they're true ones. You know what The Shemibob said when I asked her if she'd fixed them so they'd show a phase-in even if we were mismatched."
For some reason, Vana burst into tears and ran away. Deyv figured out why she'd done that a few minutes afterward. He was sorry that he'd hurt her. But the truth had to be faced. Anyway, he wasn't certain that The Shemibob was just teasing him. Look at how stubborn Vana was about his going to her tribe.
Another thing worried Deyv. That was that the baby had no soul egg. Both he and Vana had looked for a .soul-egg tree during their journey. Of course, they'd found none, since these were either well protected by their owners within the villages or by the Houses or hidden in the forest. Anyway, even if one had been found, it might not have had a matching egg for Thrush. What if, when they got back to their tribe, whichever it was, no match could be found?
Thrush would be killed. It wasn't so bad to lose a babv before you came to love it. At least, that was what Deyv had been told. But to see a spear thrust into the baby now—that vision was unendurable.
He told Sloosh about this.
"You are a savage! Could you do this?"
"What else could I do? I wouldn't like it, I'd be grief-stricken. But that is the ancient way of my people."
"Sometimes," Sloosh said, "I don't know why I bother trying to talk you into going through the gateway."
They ate heavily of a sow that Aejip killed. The Yawtl surprised everybody by insisting on cooking it He exnpained that he was in a good mood because his journey was soon to be ended. He wanted to do some service for the others as a slight repayment for what they'd done for him.
Dew awoke with someone yelling in his ear. He had a bad headache, and his mouth felt as if it had been filled with sand which Aejio had used to bury her excrement. Then Vana was shaking him and shouting that he should wake up.
"Feersh his been killed! Her throat's been cut! And The Shernihob's bag has been stolen!"
Dew tried to sit up, but his elbow kept slipping. "What? Who?"